How to be Doo Dah Queena ... Steven Cuevas' prison special report ... Remembering Leon Lyon, who helped bring Kahlua to America ... CyberFrequencies talks with the father of virtual reality ... and more.
Reign on my parade, or how to be the next Doo Dah Queen
Tryouts have just been announced for Queen of the Doo Dah, the whimsical response to the Rose Parade. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with past Doo Dah Queen Michelle Mills (Naughty Mickie) about what it takes to be Queen. Come inside for more details about the May 1st parade, the tryouts, and the campaign to draft Queena Kim.
The 33rd Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade – the significantly more light-hearted relative of the Rose Parade -- is on May 1, and the Doo Dah organizers are looking for a new Queen.
Tryouts are on February 13 at 2pm at the American Legion on 179 N. Vinedo in Pasadena. I’ve encouraged Queena Kim, Off-Ramp producer and co-host of CyberFrequencies to try out. She is wise, cruel, and is already named Queena. But she doesn’t want to have to get up really early on the day of the parade. (Please use the comments section below to encourage Queena to try out. Offer enticements like cocoanut macaroons from El Pavo, money, dry goods, free landscaping services, etc.)
So what does being the Doo Dah Queen entail?
I asked Michelle Mills (above), the Pasadena Star-News reporter and blogger, who reigned under the name Naughty Mickie two years ago, how being Queen changed her life, and if she has advice for the new Queen – or Queena. Michelle writes:
I never was homecoming queen, head cheerleader, nor had the lead role in the play, but I was the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade Queen (2007/2008). My reign brought many opportunities and responsibilities, but the biggest change in my life was becoming a celebrity.
I still get stopped when I go out by people asking for an autograph or to pose in a photo with me. It's even stranger when I'm doing my job as a journalist and my interview subject gushes that they are honored to speak with me! I have had to become more aware of how I conduct myself in public and try to never have a bad hair day.
A few tips for a truly royal reign:
1. Be gracious, kind, understanding and patient in all situations. You are not only representing the Doo Dah Parade, but the Light Bringer Project and Pasadena.
2. During interviews and appearances, be sure to mention that the funds from the parade support the Light Bringer Project's endeavors to make art and art education accessible to children.
3. Come up with a signature phrase. I have two: "Don't dream it, do it!" and "You can draw a lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, but they'll eat anything if you rip off their wings."
4. Let your crazy-fun side shine! This is your moment, relish it.
5. Glitter. You can never have too much glitter.
Now carry on, as you were!
The father of Virtual Reality Jaron Lanier takes on Web 2.0
Jaron Lanier's book "You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto" is all the buzz on the web this week.
Lanier takes on what's become conventional wisdom about Web 2.0. You know that Facebook, My Space and YouTube, Blogspot... are celebrating the individual.
We don't need a TV deal, we have YouTube.
Facebook tells you who I am!
And when individuals submit everything they know? The collective knowledge is perfect knowledge.
CyberFrequencies been guilty of promoting this point of view but Lanier spins out a dystopic future.
Web 2.0 rests on the ideology that the universe is made of computations and we, the people, need to keep feeding information to Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. The final quest? Eternal life.
Take a listen and sign up for the podcast at CyberFrequencies
Special Report: Allegations of abuse at Chino Prison
Last summer, a riot at the California Institution for Men in Chino left more than 200 prisoners injured. Investigators say it was sparked by tensions between black and Latino street gangs. But it’s what allegedly occurred after the riot that got the attention of KPCC reporter Steven Cuevas. He found current and former inmates who say they were forced to live outdoors, 24 hours a day, in small steel enclosures. Not only that. Others have come forward alleging the prison routinely houses prisoners outdoors. Steven’s reporting has now triggered a state investigation. Come inside for the story, and for links to the full web page.
Rabe reviews iPhone app, unveils new art prank
Be part of an international art conspiracy that could rock the foundations of Western Civilization. Come inside for details.
I’ve been busy exploring a new app on my iPhone. It’s the Hipstamatic, and it degrades the quality of the iPhone’s camera.
When any joker (like me) with a digital camera can take beautiful shots, the photos we used to make with old cheap cameras now have a certain charm. But now you don’t have to buy a funky Soviet-style camera at Urban Outfitters, and go to the trouble of having the film processed and printed, or search out an old Instamatic and film.
With the Hipstamatic and its interchangeable virtual lenses, films, flashes, and gels, you can take black-and-white photos with a fake date at the bottom:
And you can add a glow to color shots – making even the impossibly handsome Connor the Dog look better:
So equipped, my plan is to go around Los Angeles and take shots of old looking stuff, then post the results, claiming I found the photos in a box in an attic, or at a flea market. We’ll see if it goes anywhere. You, as savvy John Rabe blog readers, will know it’s a prank, and will perhaps think of ways to aid and abet my efforts. (This is an invitation.) Maybe we need a code word? Please try to work the word “Swordfish” into whatever you do, and that’ll tell everyone else you’re in on the joke.
Praising and hazing the new USC football coach
Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Senior News Editor Nick Roman about Pete Carroll's exit from USC, and then KPCC's Brian Watt talks with a couple of football fans (including Jason Hale, above, whose sentiments are obvious) about Carroll's successor, Lane Kiffin.
RIP Leon Lyon, who knew how to live life, and who helped bring us MOCA, OCMA ... and Kahlua
Off-Ramp host John Rabe remembers Leon Lyon, an Orange County mainstay of the arts ... and just life in general ... who more than likely touched your life. Come inside to learn about Leon's record album, which you can download here.
This May, Lee Lyon recorded an album of jazz piano for his wife Barbara's birthday. The second and third pieces of audio above are the album, which the Lyon family was pleased to allow Off-Ramp to post for your downoading and listening pleasure. If you like it, please leave a note in the comments section below, and raise a glass to Lee the next time you're enjoying life.
JOHN'S REMEMBRANCE:
When I die, I can only hope that my memorial service will be standing room only … like last Friday, when hundreds of people showed up to pay tribute to Leon Lyon at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club. They fired off their cannon in Lee’s honor.
Lee died in December at the age of 89 and I bet he touched your life even if you didn’t know his name. It says a lot about him that he’d had congestive heart failure for years, but didn’t tell his daughter this until the week he died. She’d have tried to get him to slow down – and as everyone said in their eulogies – Lee was in too much of a hurry. He still had too much to do.
Lee’s daughter is Linda Othenin-Girard, the senior producer of Airtalk, and that’s how I came to know her dad. Lee made very good money in homebuilding and running a thrift, and when he was 48, he retired. Boom, like that. As his brother Bill – the Orange County billionaire - described it at the service, Lee went from one day wearing suits to the next, wearing Hawaiian shirts. It was 1968 and those days, in Orange County, that was radical.
But Lee wasn’t interested in spending his life making money. He traveled. He took painting lessons. He took music lessons. We’re listening to an album he recorded last summer for his wife … on the Garage Band computer program, which he bought and learned himself.
Lee was married to Molly for 55 years. She died in 2003, and some guys would have been emotionally paralyzed afterwards. But Lee knew that life was for living. So in 2005, he married Barbara, and began a five year love affair with her. Speaking of family – as you know, his daughter is a public radio star, Stevie Wonder recorded “The Secret Life of Plants” at Curt Lyon’s studio, and Lee’s other son Bruce won a technical Oscar for an animation device. I’ve seen the photo: Bill Shatner gave Bruce the Oscar.
Lee Lyon helped the entrepreneurs who started Glacier Water and LA Eyeworks and he served on the board of Planned Parenthood IN ORANGE COUNTY! But his main focus was the arts. He helped start the Orange County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, helping to bring curator Paul Schimmel to MOCA, where he’s been for decades.
I bet Lee Lyon touched your life even if you’ve never visited OCMA or MOCA. Even if you never bought a pair of glasses at LA Eyeworks or drunk Glacier water. The one thing I haven’t told you about Lee is that before he retired, he was in business with his brother Bill and their father. They imported booze, and they discovered a Mexican liqueur they thought might be popular in the U-S, and eventually bought the label. The liquer was Kahlua. And now you know the rest of the story.
So here’s a toast to a man who knew what was important, who knew how to live life: Lee Lyon.
RIP Marka Hibbs of Pasadena -- "at the intersection of art and science" ... and she threw some great parties.
When Marka Hibbs died suddenly in Pasadena at the end of last month, a family friend said she and her late husband, and their wide circle of friends, created a lifestyle that “celebrated the quintessential Pasadena intersection of art and science.” Hibbs was 78. Off-Ramp correspondent Hank Rosenfeld went to her memorial.
Hank's Remembrance:
I knew Marka through a friend of mine who was IN LOVE with Marka’s stepdaughter, Victoria. They allll lived in a huge warm Craftsman on Prospect Boulevard up there above the Rose Bowl.
Marka was a widow who went about 5-feet tall with fiery red hair and her second husband was Al Hibbs, who worked at JPL as head of the Space Science Division -- He worked on Voyager and the house is full of amaaaazing photographs of California and the U-S and the world … from outer space.
Marka’s son Larry Wilson, the public editor of the Pasadena Star-News and a terrific columnist, held the memorial for her on the lawn of the house a couple Sundays ago. A lotta people showed up … like back in the days when she hosted wild salons and costume parties, benefits and events featuring Richard Feynman and Timothy Leary, Russian space scientists... Larry said it was like living at a caterers.
Plus: she knew Zorthian..ZORTHIAN!! wild armenian character who held a Primavera art and music and debauchery fest every spring up top of Lake Street in AltaDena.
Marka had many fans. Larry said she influenced a generation of kids at Flintridge Prep when she was librarian there in the 70s and '80s.
At the memorial, they pulled a pine tree inside from the garden and attached dozens of notes on the branches: These were "Memories of Marka" that friends and family were asked to jot down. I asked the Hibbs family if I could share some on radio and they said okay:
"What a classy lady" ... "Feisty."
"Marka was the belle of the ball...she received endless compliments on her blue mohair sweater and the way it set off her beautiful eyes...I will miss her gentle graciousness and spirit."
"Marka is the embodiment of genuine, inspirational love. Love as in real class, no judgment against other souls."
"She went swimming with Birut Galdikas in Borneo!"
"I remember all the times Marka told the truth -- which was always! Especially powerful in that others of us may have been unwilling or unable to see things so clearly."
"I met Marka to do carpentry work on her house. I consider Marka a friend. I was always looking for an excuse to work on Marka's house. Brought a lot of sunshine to a gloomy day."
"LIBRARIANS (like Marka) ROCK!"
"Marka had her own supply of Texas Iced Tea...and the bride entered on horseback..."
"The first time I met Marka was at our very first musical fundraiser at the house for the Pasadena Museum of History. Marka arrived with a beautiful bunch of Gerber Daisies that she cut from her garden."
"Marka was a second mother to me, as i now know she was to so many others...I can hear her say "Oh Miguel" still.."
"I remember her homemade mayonnaise, which apparently I ate a whole jar..."
"I lost a wonderful neighbor, a dear and thoughtful friend, one who always called to say "I miss you. Stop by."
Marka went to Scripps College and the school motto was perfect for her memorial: Incipit Vita Nova: "Enter a new life." Marka Hibbs’ personal philosophy was, "What is to become of all of us?"
For Off-Ramp, I’m Hank Rosenfeld.
Rabe Takes on World, Universe in Blog
Off-Ramp host John Rabe has a blog that's been called a "must read," and not just by him. Check it out, and please comment.
Winners and "losers" in the Off-Ramp EatLA Guide Contest
Come inside to see tons of great happy photos of people and food, including the ones who won brand new EatLA 2010 guides that will ensure deliciousness for one more year.
In last week’s Off-Ramp newsletter, we offered four brand new Eat LA guides to food and drink in Los Angeles. (On last week’s show, I interviewed the editor, and she gave us some books to give away.)
The contestants needed to send us a photo of themselves doing something (anything) that related to food or drink.
The winners:
Kelsey McConnell, who says she loves Off-Ramp and had a ramen adventure with her girlfriend in Torrance:
Imelda Hinojosa …
… an artist who writes:
The picture is me snacking on a homemade tortilla. My son wanted "breakfast" for lunch, so I made sausage/eggs, fruit salad … and flour tortillas. I had just sat down at the computer, to check my e's (and snack on his left over food) when I got your newsletter. How's that for timely? Tortillas are one of the things I learned to make from my mom & Grandmother. I regret never learning to make the other traditional foods. My Mom could make the perfect fluffy chili rellenos stuffed with melty cheese … mmmm. And of course, she made the Holiday Tamales.
I never learned her secret to spicing the masa or meat! As a kid, I didn't like tamales, and only participated in the assembly line MAKING of them: corn husks, masa, meat, folding, steaming, etc. -- which didn't make me like them even more.
But I am proud to say, my brother made some this Christmas and they were delish. My Mom passed in '01. She would be so proud of him.
Suzanne Lee of Sherman Oaks, who apparently enjoys ribs … a teeny bit ...
… and Robert of Orange, who entered on behalf of his Dorito’d daughter:
Many other folks entered and missed the deadline, but looking at the pics told me something.
As far as I could tell, not one of these entrants (except Warren "Man with Fork" Horton) needed to go out and take a new photo, which tells me that, even though food related photos are not always the most flattering by fashion standards (that is, Anna Wintour isn’t going to put Sonja Thinmodel on the cover munching a rib or a drumstick, with sauce on her chin), we like them and we take them. And guess what? People look happy when they’re around food and friends, which makes these photos about 900% better than the “beautiful” people’s shots.
Sharon Chung of Anaheim with a tasty iced tea.
Stacey Colonna of Woodland Hills, who is in here somewhere with her friends at Ford’s Filling Station in Culver City.
La Crescentan Lisa Haber, who captured her “baby’s first pizza.”
Reva Smilkstein, at Fatty’s in Eagle Rock, apparently on June 17:
Heidi Seymour (on the right, I believe, with a friend):
Tony Rodriguez, “with the Orochon Special #2 Spicy Ramen Challenge in Little Tokyo that I heard Queena Kim talk about a couple of years ago on Off Ramp!”
And Jennifer Henke of Riverside, enjoying herself at the OC Fair.
Thanks to everyone who entered. And there’s a happy ending even for the “losers.” Colleen Bates of EatLA is sending all these folks books anyway. Thanks, Colleen.
If you want to be in on these kinds of cool giveaways in the future, sign up for the Off-Ramp Newsletter.
Haitian Immigrant Raises Thousands for Earthquake Relief at his Restaurant
One of the central meeting places for Haitians in Los Angeles is a little restaurant in Echo Park called Ti Georges. People have been gathering there since the devastating earthquake and have raised thousands of dollars for the cause. KPCC’s Shirley Jahad paid a visit the morning after the news broke, then visited the fundraiser. Come inside for a link to the full stories.
Jeffrey Deitsch -- MOCA's new director -- gasp -- owns a gallery
MOCA, in downtown Los Angeles, one of the most prestigious contemporary art museums in the world, has appointed a new chief who is raising eyebrows in the art world because he’s a gallery owner. A couple of years ago MOCA was broke and almost had to close its doors. As KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez reports, the new director hopes to use his vast experience in the private art world to help the museum stay on its feet and grow. Come inside for a link to Adolfo's story and Airtalk's coverage.